Chicago Cubs vs. Oakland Athletics preview, Monday 8/5, 7:05 CT

Info on Craig Kimbrel to the injured list: Here

Notes:

• HOME SWEET HOME: Cubs pitching has posted a 3.27 ERA (190 earned runs in 523 innings) at Wrigley Field, the second-lowest home ERA in baseball, trailing only the Dodgers (2.67).
• PITCHING, PITCHING, PITCHING: Cubs starters have not allowed a free pass in six-straight games for the first time since at least 1905. The club had previously done so in five-straight games on three occasions. (H/T: Ed Hartig) Cubs starters have faced 143 batters without issuing a walk since Jose Quintana walked Orlando Arcia in the fifth inning, July 28 at Milwaukee.
• MORE PITCHING: As a team, Cubs pitchers have struck out at least eight batters and walked two or fewer batters in seven-straight games for the first time since at least 1908. Cubs pitchers have struck out 74 batters while walking just six during this span.
• HEY HEY J-HEY! Jason Heyward, 34 games since June 22: .331/.370/.598 (42-for-127) with nine doubles, two triples, seven home runs and 22 RBI. He has 28 multi-hit games this year, one short of the 29 he had for all of 2018.
• UNDER THE RADAR: Kyle Ryan on Saturday struck out Christian Yelich to lead off the eighth inning, continuing his success against left-handed batters. Since June 6, lefties are 4-for-31 (.129) with no extra-base hits and one walk against Ryan. Kyle has a 1.21 ERA (3 earned runs in 22⅓ innings) during this stretch (24 appearances).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Athletics lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Chris Bassitt, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Hendricks, last four starts: 1.44 ERA, 0.920 WHIP, 22 strikeouts in 25 innings. And his last two starts, which were on the road: no runs in 12 innings. That’s good, because Kyle had struggled in road games earlier this year.

In games at Wrigley, he has been dominant: nine starts, 1.89 ERA, 0.887 WHIP, only nine walks in 62 innings.

Only two current members of the A’s have more than a handful of plate appearances against Kyle: Khris Davis (5-for-17) and Stephen Piscotty (4-for-15). Kyle did face the A’s three years ago in Oakland and allowed three hits and one run in 7⅓ innings, but most of those A’s aren’t on the team now.

Chris Bassitt has had an interesting career. He made a splash with the White Sox for a few starts in 2014. After that season he was traded to the A’s in the deal that brought Jeff Samardzija to the White Sox. Bassitt had a decent year in 2015 and then had Tommy John surgery in 2016, missing two full years.

He’s come back and has increased his strikeout rate, per this article from earlier this year. He has never faced the Cubs, and the only Cub who has more than one PA against him is Nicholas Castellanos (4-for-11, three doubles). Hope the Cubs have a good scouting report on Bassitt.

Today’s game is on WGN. It’s also on ESPN (outside the Cubs and Athletics market territories). ESPN announcers: Dave Flemming, David Ross and Tim Kurkjian.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Athletics site Athletics Nation. If you do go there to interact with A’s fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2019 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used in previous years. Here’s how it works.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page, two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads” so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in the game’s StoryStream as noted above.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.